Credit Suisse CEO, Star Banker Fell Out at Party in January: T-A

(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam and former wealth management business head Iqbal Khan got into an altercation at a January party, prompting Khan to complain to the bank’s board before his resignation in July, Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger reported.

The party at Thiam’s house in Herrliberg outside Zurich was attended by Khan, his wife, as well as other Credit Suisse employees and ended in a “very intense row” between the two men, the newspaper said, citing unidentified sources.

Spokesman for both bankers declined to comment on the report.

Citing unidentified people close to Thiam, it said the argument had been “a personal thing” and not related to the bank, while people close to Khan were quoted as saying that the CEO had grown increasingly exasperated with the younger executive’s success and the fact that he had taken on the role of “crown prince” in a possible CEO succession.

The story is the latest twist in a spying scandal that has rocked Swiss financial circles after it emerged over the weekend that Credit Suisse hired a private investigator to shadow Khan after his resignation to join rival UBS Group AG as co-head of wealth management next week. According to people familiar with the matter, the surveillance operation was ordered to prevent him from poaching private bankers from Credit Suisse.

Tages-Anzeiger also said that Khan reported events of the January party to Credit Suisse’s board of directors, with Chairman Urs Rohner unsuccessfully trying to moderate between the two bankers. The relationship between the bank CEO and his most successful executive member was “shattered” after that evening, the newspaper said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jan Dahinten in Zurich at jdahinten@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jan Dahinten at jdahinten@bloomberg.net, Dale Crofts

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